Qatar Airways to restart Egypt flights

Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad Int’l) restarts scheduled passenger services to Cairo Int’l on January 18, 2021, and to Alexandria Borg el Arab the week later after Egypt formalised the end of its ban on the Qatari carrier. Services to the Egyptian capital will operate daily and to Alexandria 2x weekly. EgyptAir (MS, Cairo Int’l) has also pledged to shortly restart daily services to Doha Hamad Int’l. Qatar Airways resumed flights to Saudi Arabia, the leader of the blockade coalition, on January 11, 2021. It has yet to announce when it will resume flights to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which also took part in the embargo. Qatar Airways Group Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said during a recent CAPA Live event that despite the reopening of its core regional markets, it would retain services launched during the 3.5-year-long boycott as an alternative. Prior to the June 2017 development, Saudi Arabia alone was responsible for around 20% of Qatar Airways’ total capacity. Air Arabia (G9, Sharjah) is so far the only Emirati carrier to have announced the resumption of services between the UAE and Qatar.